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Bhagawan Mahavir ]
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his own hands, brought you up under his own guidance and tried to make you a perfect man in every respect. It is due to his kindness that you are breathing before me, otherwise you would not have seen even the light of the day. My Son, if you want to make your life worthy of its name, you must go out this very instant, set your father free at once, and receive the dust of his feet on your head. There is an other atonement for the sin that you have committed at this time."
To hear these touching words of his mother, Kaunika began to tremble, He got up at once and hurried to set his father free. He carried a sharp axe in his haad in order to cut off the chains of his father. But the father thought that his wicked son was coming to put an end to his life, that he was perhaps not satisfied with mere imprisonment and that therefore he wanted to get rid of him altogether, for a greedy man never thinks that he is committing a sin.
Shrenika was a great man and a man of honour. He remembered that honour was the greatest wealth of a great man, He had tolerated one insult at the hands of his son, now he would not tolerate any more. He thought that the insult of being killed by his own son was worse than death. His conscience came to his help and he felt in his inner soul "Injustice as well as oppression must not be tolerated at any time and in any case, and from any body-whether he be a relative or otherwise, whether he be a friend or an enemy whether he be a king or a subject, whether he belongs to a high class or a low class, and whether he be an ascetic or a layman. He who tolerates injustice and wrong is a greater sinner than one who perpetrates them. A brave man would never like to live as a slave and a dependent." As soon as
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